In One Part Of Bronx, Gunfire Has Eased

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: July 9, 1995

When Clark Fleming first arrived in the Bronx four years ago, robbers preyed on his building at 170th Street and Morris Avenue, drug dealers prowled the streets and gunshots echoed through the nights.

"Every night by my window I was terrified," said Dr. Fleming, who grew up in Lynchburg, S.C., and finished his medical residency in New York. "I would hear gunshots and see drug deals going on."

Since then, much of that has changed in Dr. Fleming's neighborhood -- and elsewhere in New York City. New police statistics show that the crime rate in New York is at its lowest point since 1970. And on the streets of Dr. Fleming's neighborhood, on the western edge of the Tremont section, residents said they had seen a decrease in crime.

Local police officials, like their colleagues at headquarters downtown, say they would love to take the credit but do not know for sure why crime statistics have declined.

Still, the change is palpable both in the station house and on the beat, the police said, with officers on patrol now responding to a dozen or so calls each night, compared with more than 30 a night just a few years ago.

The 44th Precinct, which covers Dr. Fleming's part of Tremont and the High Bridge section, is still one of the highest-crime areas in the city. But statistics show a drop in virtually every type of violent crime since 1993. Murders are down 44 percent, robberies are down 30 percent, shootings are down nearly 35 percent.

The numbers in the 44th Precinct are in line with the citywide statistics in almost every way, except for an increase in rapes in the 44th, which contrasts with the overall decline in that category. The compact precinct provides an example of how and why the crime situation has changed across New York.

Frank Rios, 63, a maintenance worker who moved to the Bronx from Brooklyn five years ago, said he felt safer. "Two years ago they robbed me right by the front door," he said, sitting with his wife, Zaida, 55, in a small plaza near their building on 169th Street. "Now, it feels like a small town. There are more lights. The cops are always coming back and forth. I feel more safe."

But officers of the 44th, like those elsewhere, said the character of the area they cover had not changed all that much in recent years. Crime may be down and arrests up, but they say they are still always on guard. "Everything's been the same," said Sgt. Thomas J. Matteo, a 12-year veteran who was running the desk at the 44th on Friday night. "It's still a bad area."

Criminologists and police experts have offered several explanations for the reducion in crime. Officers in the 44th said they had street-level evidence to support two of those explanations: that the drug wars of the late 1980's for the most part have been settled, reducing the number of shootings and murders, and that increasing use of heroin in place of crack cocaine has made addicts more sluggish and therefore less likely to commit robberies.

"It used to be that the vast majority of homicides were drug-related," said Sgt. Charles A. Luisi, who supervises the 44th Precinct Detective Squad. "It's kind of evened out. A lot of the drug-related homicides are not happening." Killings now are just as likely to involve domestic disputes and robberies, he said.

The sergeant added that arrests had been made in 12 of the 23 homicides so far this year. Last year at this time, there had been 32 homicides, he said.

He added that police work had been more aggressive and that recent improvements in the department's computer database had made the computer a much more effective tool in tracking criminals.

Officer Anthony Bonanno, who was assigned to the 44th Precinct as a rookie four and a half years ago, called the change in the drug scene remarkable. In 1991, the area "around 167th and Sheridan, that's Grant Avenue also, was like a supermarket for crack," he said. "Now what they're selling is scattered and it's not so open."

Officer Bonanno said it was much more common today for officers to come across decks, or small envelopes, of heroin. Crack vials are no longer found everywhere, he said.

Residents, too, attribute the record levels of crime in the late 1980's to the city's crack epidemic.

"Everything around here is better," said Dave Molina, 21, who lives on Sheridan Avenue and works in a clothing store. "Before, they used to rob people right here. You couldn't walk through the block because you'd be scared to death."

Because of changes in Police Department policy instituted by Commissioner William J. Bratton, there has been more emphasis on arrests; precinct commanders as well as local officers have been empowered to make them. In the 44th, those changes have produced more drug arrests by patrol officers, roadblock checkpoints for drunken or unlicensed drivers and local "sting" operations.

Many residents in the precinct attributed an increased police presence to the new station house that opened in January 1993 at Jerome Avenue and 169th Street. The previous station house was in a more remote area near the Major Deegan Expressway on Sedgwick Avenue.

And several residents said the police sometimes cracked down too hard. "Crime has dropped," said Francisco Cardoza, 61, who runs a parking garage across the street from the station house. "But let's see the other side of the coin. What about police brutality in this neighborhood? The young kids go in with handcuffs and then the ambulances have to come to take them to the hospital."

Officer Gil Vasquez said that people were more aware of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates allegations of police misconduct, and that they were quicker to be antagonistic toward officers.

A few residents said they felt the crime situation had not improved much. "I don't see crime coming down, not in the Bronx," said Juan Garcia, 47, who lives on Walton Avenue. Prostitution is still evident on Jerome Avenue, they said. And men smoking marijuana can be seen walking down the streets.

But even residents who said little had improved conceded that crime was now less visible.

"People I associate with notice it also," Dr. Fleming said. "Over here used to be the roughest area in the Bronx. Either the guys are not as bold or crime is actually dropping."

Photo: Arrests in the 44th Precinct have increased 16.7 percent over 1994. At the precinct station house at Jerome Avenue and 169th Street in the Bronx on Friday evening, two youths were being booked at the front desk. (George M. Gutierrez for The New York Times) Chart "Good News for a Tough Precinct" lists the total number of arrests in New York City during '94 and '95 (Source: New York City Police Department)